


Atelophobia

by hidden_stories11



Category: Everything Sucks (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-16 10:19:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14162679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidden_stories11/pseuds/hidden_stories11
Summary: atelophobia - the fear of imperfectionoliver had to be perfect. everything he did - it just had to be flawless. it was killing him. tyler hated seeing him that way.





	Atelophobia

**Author's Note:**

> This is digging into a deeper realm of Oliver. I write a lot about Tyler having problems, as does everyone else. I wanted to show this dark side of Oliver (a sort of unexpected dark side). Oliver acted as though he had to be the best in the theatre, but can we imagine if he had that attitude towards everything?

     Oliver sat on his bed, scribbling down his essay. He was annoyed. His grammar wasn't precise, and his vocabulary just didn't seem bold enough. His handwriting was beginning to get sloppy from hours of writing and rewriting, his fingers red and knuckles white. Tyler sat across from him, staring worriedly as his boyfriend fumed over his homework. Tyler had never seen anyone work this hard, not even McQuaid. But he saw that his boyfriend needed space, and so he gave it to him. He tried not to hover, and he kept his Tamagotchi on silent. He would ask Oliver about this later, he decided. But for right now, there was one peaceful vibe in the room, and that was love. No matter how angry they got, you could still feel the butterflies swarming them any time they got close enough to each other. It made Tyler smile.

     The older boy started on his math homework, solving each problem in three different ways - just so he could check it, he said. His homework had to be the best. Tyler didn't understand Trig, or what its purpose was, but Oliver seemed to love it. To be fair, Tyler wasn't even sure what a Hypotenuse was, so he wasn't sure how he was supposed to understand a Sine, Cosine Graph (he also didn't know that these were two separate units and that hypotenuses were used on triangles). Oliver never once bothered the boy with any of his Trig work, because he seemed to understand that Tyler had no interest in graphs or angles or any of that stuff. But he enjoyed knowing that the younger boy was watching him; it was very comforting and calming. Tyler was just glad Oliver didn't seem to be working too hard. If crazy hard math is what made Oliver calm down, Tyler was down with that. 

      

      Little things Oliver had been doing stuck out to Tyler. It was almost like a whole new type of OCD. Oliver had to have everything perfect. He thought that maybe Oliver was just a perfectionist, but then he noticed that it was like a fear - it was controlling Oliver's life and ability to do things. Tyler wondered how he had never seen this before. Oliver began doing things, or, rather, _not_ doing things. He would say to his boyfriend, "I can't do that, I'll be no good." He wouldn't try. And that was fine if he didn't refuse like he would die if he did the thing and messed up. His fear of flaws scared Tyler. It was invading their relationship, and it seemed to get worse and worse every day. Tyler wanted desperately to help his older boyfriend, but he wasn't sure how.

      "Oliver, we need to talk about this," Tyler said, tugging at Oliver's flannel. The taller boy looked down, his eyebrows furrowing at the younger boy. Tyler was staring up into his eyes, a pleading look on his face. The taller boy sighed, sitting down. Tyler followed suit, snuggling into his boyfriend.

      "What's wrong, Ty?" Oliver asked, pulling him close.

      "I'm really worried about you. You fear failing and it's starting to scare me. You're not happy anymore." Tyler whispered. Oliver looked down, unsure of what to say. He hadn't even noticed. Nothing had changed recently. Yeah, he was hard on himself, and yeah, he set a ton of standards. But Oliver simply wanted to just be the best at what he did. That seemed reasonable to him.

      "I'm fine, Ty. You don't have to worry about me." The older boy spoke up. But Tyler was already shaking his head furiously. He pulled out of his lovers embrace so that he could face him, allowing Oliver to see the look on his face.

      "I do too have to worry! It's hurting you. It's making you stressed and anxious and irritated and I can't live with that!" Tyler exclaimed. Oliver sat, staring at his boyfriend apologetically. He hadn't realized he had hurt him. He never intended to, at least. It was clear to him that his problem was affecting the people around him.  

      "I'm sorry, Tyler. I didn't know." He said, grabbing both the smaller boy's hands. Tyler looked down, running his fingers across the ones that were gripping his. Oliver was crying. Not a whole lot, but enough to make Tyler understand that he meant it. Oliver cried whenever he noticed he did something to upset Tyler. Tyler was an easygoing person, and he wasn't quick to get emotional (unless the emotion was sadness, the boy could get sad real quick). But Oliver sometimes said or did things that he noticed made his boyfriend uncomfortable, whether it be sad or angry. And Oliver just felt so bad because he had never loved anyone this much in his entire life, so the only thing he knew how to do was cry and apologize (also take his boyfriend out on cute dates because he was older and had money and just really loved Tyler a lot). 

      "It's okay," Tyler told him, reaching out to wipe away some of his tears. Oliver was a really emotionally damaged person, Tyler understood this better than anyone. He was the only one in years to ever see the older boy cry. Oliver liked it like that because it showed Tyler a whole new side of him that he never knew how to express in words. Luckily for both of them, the secretly sensitive boy didn't cry very often, but when he did, Tyler would kiss the tip of his nose and cuddle with him until they were both okay again. Oliver liked this routine because sometimes he needed to be taken care of the way he always took care of Tyler. It was sweet and pure, and both boys fell even more in love when this routine was in play.


End file.
